“Hey, this is interesting,” Harlow said once she sat down.

  “What is?”

  “According to the answers they gave, they kind of met how we did,” Harlow replied and looked up from her phone, where, it appeared, she was reading their application. “Gloria is a Ph.D. student, like you.”

  “Yeah, she is. Not psychology, though.”

  “But she was a TA to Jessie her freshman year, and now, they’re together.”

  “That’s a pretty big age difference for those two ages, don’t you think? Thirty and twenty? Jessie can’t even get into bars yet.”

  Harlow laughed and said, “Yeah, but it’s nice.”

  “What is?”

  “They met the same way as us.” Harlow smiled over at Larissa, who wondered where she was going with that. “I just think it’s nice. We’re not the only ones.”

  Before Larissa could point out that they weren’t a couple like Jessie and Gloria, the conference room door opened.

  “Are you Harlow Madden?” a young-looking guy asked.

  “That’s me.”

  “You have two guests out front. They said they have an appointment.”

  “Oh, yeah. Can they come back on their own, or do I have to get them?”

  “They can come on back. I’ll let them through.”

  “Thanks,” Harlow said and put her phone away. “Don’t forget to record this time,” she added to Larissa.

  Larissa just stared at her a moment longer, smiled, and pulled out her own phone. A woman that, she guessed, was Gloria, because she looked older, opened the door and held it open for Jessie, who walked in first and introduced herself. Gloria shook Larissa’s hand and then Harlow’s before they both sat down.

  “Do you mind if I record our conversation just for my records?” she asked.

  Jessie looked over at Gloria.

  “Sure,” Gloria replied. “So, Ph.D.?”

  “Working on it,” Larissa replied. “But this isn’t for my dissertation or an academic paper. If I decide to reference it for that, I’ll notify and ask permission of all participants, and there would be anonymity, of course.”

  “No problem,” Gloria replied with a small smile.

  Jessie placed her hand on the back of Gloria’s chair and seemed a little quiet.

  “So, I’d like to start by having you tell me how you met,” Larissa began. “In particular, I’m looking for specific feelings, thoughts, and events. The more specific you can be, the better, but you don’t have to share anything you don’t want to and can decline to answer any question.”

  She pressed record on her app and set the phone down at the center of the table.

  “Um… Well, I’m in college,” Jessie said. “I’m a sophomore now, but I was a freshman when we met. Gloria was my TA. She taught the Tuesday section for my class, and after the first class, I went to her office hours because I was having trouble finding the course book that was required.”

  “She says that like I believe her.” Gloria laughed.

  “It’s true, though. She thinks I was into her right away, but I wasn’t. I mean, I did think she was hot, and she is hot, but it wasn’t about that. I just went to tell her that the campus bookstore was out of copies. I had a reading due for the next class.”

  “And what happened then?”

  “She told me she would let the bookstore know that they needed more copies and lent me hers for the week until they came in,” Jessie replied.

  “How did it feel when you met for the first time?”

  “In class?”

  “I assume the class was more intro to the course?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, office hours, then,” Larissa said and made a note.

  “We just talked about the course book that time, technically, but her fingers kind of brushed mine when she was handing me her copy.” Jessie smiled, and Larissa found herself smiling, too, as she noted the smile in her notebook. “I felt static electricity. I know that’s all it was, but I looked into her eyes, and she seemed surprised, too. We laugh about it now because we know it’s silly, but we both think that’s the moment we first felt it.”

  “It?” Harlow asked. “Can you describe it?”

  “Interest?” Gloria asked more than said. “I knew it was wrong; trust me. I’d never slept with a student in my class any of the semesters I was a TA. But Jessie was different. I felt it in that moment.”

  “And how did you feel about that, given that you were responsible for her grade?” Larissa asked.

  “Oh, I hated myself. I worried I was becoming a cliché.” Gloria laughed a bit. “But her work was objectively amazing. There was a group project almost right away in the semester. The group got an A, and on their group member evaluations, all of them praised Jessie as the group leader who made it all work, so I felt a little less guilty, but not by much. And don’t get me started on the ethics situation.” She shrugged. “I just liked her. I couldn’t help it.”

  “How did you spend time together?” Harlow asked.

  “After the office hours, we didn’t for at least a month,” Jessie answered. “Then, I bumped into her at a coffee cart, and we had that kind of awkward thing that happens when a student and teacher run into one another outside of class.”

  “It was awkward at first,” Gloria added and placed her hand on Jessie’s leg. “But she looked really tired, and I asked her if she was okay.”

  “I’d been up late studying the night before. Hence, the coffee.”

  “And we got to talking. I remember laughing a lot.”

  “And I liked making her laugh,” Jessie said.

  “Did you start dating after that?”

  “Yeah. Well, it wasn’t really a date thing. Like, I didn’t ask her out, and she didn’t ask me out. I told her I was going to a movie later on campus, and she said she might be there, too, which surprised me. Then, she was there, so we sat next to each other and shared some popcorn.”

  “And after that, we walked around campus for hours,” Gloria said, smiling.

  Larissa took notes of every time the women smiled but knew she’d be able to pick it up on the recording later, no matter what, because their tones, when they talked about how they met and fell in love, made it sound like they were smiling.

  “We walked in a big square repeatedly, basically,” Jessie added, laughing.

  “I think it was one in the morning before I walked you to your dorm.”

  “About that, yeah. Then, I asked you to come up, but you said no.”

  “Why?” Harlow asked.

  “Because I knew what would happen if I went up. She’d already told me her roommate was out of town for the week, taking care of a sick family member.”

  “You knew you’d have sex?” Harlow asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” Gloria replied. “By that time, I knew I was wildly attracted to her. If we had ended up in a dorm room with a small twin bed and nowhere else to sit, we would’ve ended up making full use of that bed. So, I left her outside her building.”

  “Not even a kiss?” Harlow pressed, laughing a little.

  “Nope. She didn’t even kiss me goodnight that night.” Jessie looked over at her. “But she wanted to.”

  “I did. You know why I didn’t.”

  “The TA thing?” Larissa asked.

  “I’m not out,” Gloria answered. “Yes, I was her teacher, but only for another couple of months, and no one would’ve accused me of giving her an unfair grade if they looked at her work. She had clearly earned her A. It was that I wasn’t out. I’m still not. She’s not my student anymore, and it’s fine that we’re together now. Frowned upon, yes, but we’re technically not breaking any rules. I’m just not out.”

  Larissa recognized this as a moment she might be able to use some of the follow-up questions she had sent to Della and Murphy, but as she was about to open her mouth, Harlow asked one instead.

  “Jessie, how do you feel about that?”

  “Honestly, I hate it. She knows that. I came out at fifteen and knew my family would be fine with it. I have an older brother who’s gay, and they were fine with him, so I felt like they’d be okay with me, too. They were, and I never looked back, but for Gloria, it’s different. I get that. I just want to be able to tell people that I have an amazing girlfriend, that I’ve been with her for about a year, and that I love her like crazy. I want us to live together after I’m out of the dorm this year. I have a part-time job, and I’ve been saving up for my half of the rent and the security deposit. I’m planning a life with her, and for us to have that, she needs to tell at least some of the people in her life that we’re a couple because she knows I won’t pretend to be her roommate.”

  Jessie glanced over at Gloria.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Do you not feel comfortable coming out to your family? Or is it a work issue?” Larissa asked.

  “My family is pretty religious. I didn’t know I was gay until a few years ago. I had a long-term boyfriend before that, and they assumed we’d get married. He proposed. I said no. It was a whole thing. I want to tell them, but thinking about how they might not ever want to talk to me again makes me not want to do it at the same time. Jessie wants a life with me, and I want one with her, too. She’s been very patient about it. She’s not pressuring me or anything. She just wants what she wants, and I want her to have it.”

  “I want her to be happy,” Jessie said. “Preferably, with me, of course, but I just want her to be happy in general, and I know she’s not because her family is important to her, and they’re missing out on this really important part of her life.”

  “I will,” Gloria said. “I’ll tell them. When we first admitted how we felt and decided to call the next time we got together a date, I wasn’t sure how it would go. I needed us to be careful around campus for obvious reasons. It would look bad for both of us if we got caught, but it took me a couple of months to realize that it was serious and that I wanted to be with her.”

  “We were exclusive after that,” Jessie shared.

  “Were you not before?” Harlow asked.

  “We were because neither of us was dating anyone else, but the day of the final exam – practically right after I turned mine in, actually – I told her I wanted her to be my girlfriend and that I didn’t want anyone else.”

  “How did that feel?” Larissa asked.

  “Like I didn’t need to worry anymore because she said yes. We’d been walking on eggshells everywhere in town, but then, I wasn’t in her class anymore, so I finally felt like we could just be. Later that night, though, at her place, she told me she wasn’t out at work or at home and that we needed to keep it that way until she at least told her parents.”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “I knew they weren’t exactly in the loop; I just didn’t think it would be an issue on campus now that we weren’t teacher and student anymore.”

  “I’m working on it, babe,” Gloria said. “I’ll tell them, I promise.”

  “I know you will,” Jessie replied and turned to Gloria a little. “I also know I’m not exactly who they thought you’d end up with, and not just because I’m a woman.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Harlow asked.

  Larissa turned to her and saw just how into this whole thing she was again today. Initially, Harlow herself had been a psychology major in college before changing to poly sci and then, dropping out, and it was interesting to see her playing such a big role in these interviews. Larissa smiled over at her, liking this almost new version of her best friend who’d seemed uninterested in pretty much everything for the past several months.

  CHAPTER 8

  “What do you mean by that?” Harlow asked. “You’re not who they thought she’d be with?”

  Harlow looked over and noticed Larissa staring at her. Maybe she should be taking more of a back seat in the interviews, but she couldn’t help herself. She had questions and wanted answers, but selfishly, she found that she also liked talking to these two couples specifically because they reminded her, in one way or another, of her relationship with Larissa. Yes, it was true that they weren’t a couple, where Jessie and Gloria obviously were one and had been for about a year, but they’d started out a little in the same way that she and Larissa had.

  When she’d first read their application responses, Harlow had immediately thought of the first time she had walked into the classroom after meeting Larissa through Aggie at an academic conference, where both sisters had been present. Aggie, being an assistant to Harlow’s advisor back then, had been the one to recommend that she attend the event, which had been open to any student or faculty member, sharing that she’d attended it herself and made connections there. Harlow, noting that those connections had obviously worked out for Aggie, had dressed up in the best clothes she’d brought with her to campus and had met Larissa there.

  “This is my sister, Larissa,” Aggie had introduced.

  “I’m Harlow,” she’d replied and shaken Larissa’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you. Freshman?”

  “Yeah. That obvious?” she’d joked.

  “No. Aggie just saw you come in and told me. You hide it well.”

  “Thanks. I’ve been working on not showing up fifteen minutes early to class since I got here, hoping people might take me for at least a sophomore.”

  Larissa had laughed, and that had been the end of her. Harlow had felt the butterflies then, and she’d been having them ever since. After the introduction and chat, she hadn’t been sure she would see Larissa again, but she’d walked into the classroom for her first section of the semester, and there Larissa had been, standing at the front of the room.

  “Hey,” Harlow had greeted after walking up to her.

  “Oh, hey. You’re right on time,” Larissa had said. “Not even fifteen minutes early.”

  “How early were you?”

  “Ten minutes. But I’m the TA, so I think I’m supposed to be early. Want to take a seat? I’ve got to get us started.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry,” Harlow had replied.

  It had been strange to her, making this transition from meeting a woman at a party, being totally into her, and thinking about asking her out, to having that same woman stand in front of the classroom, teaching her and her fellow freshmen, who were there for their introduction to psychology.

  “Oh. It’s just that I’m only twenty,” Jessie answered her question, laughing a bit. “She’s thirty. I don’t think her parents would want her falling in love with a student she taught to begin with, and I happen to be a twenty-year-old woman on top of that. Besides, to them, I’d probably be a heathen.”

  “They’re religious. She’s not,” Gloria added.

  “I’m also poor, grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.” Jessie ticked things off on her fingers. “I don’t believe in God. We’re not married, and I have sex with their daughter. I–”

  “I think they get it, babe,” Gloria said, chuckling.

  “Would you say you were friends first at all, or was it always more?” Harlow asked.

  “I think it was always more for me,” Jessie shared. “But we were technically friends first.”

  “Yeah, I’d say the same,” Gloria added. “I was attracted to her right away, and I wasn’t exactly going on dates, despite my parents trying to set me up after my relationship ended. It just took us a minute to get together, given our circumstances.”

  “Was the transition seamless, then? You say you knew it was more right away; you just weren’t together.”

  “Not really. I wanted to kiss her that night we walked around after the movie, and I wanted her to come upstairs for more than a kiss, but I was also a little embarrassed,” Jessie said. “I mean, she was twenty-nine. I was nineteen, and I had a dorm room that I shared with someone and a meal card for the cafeteria. She had her own apartment with a real kitchen. Like, she had a dishwasher, and I had an illegal hot plate in my room. So, I was really nervous about asking her to come up, and I was both glad and upset that she turned me down. I think it showed, too.”

  “You were fine.” Gloria patted Jessie’s leg. “I could tell she was nervous, yeah, but I understood because I was nervous, too. It’s hard, wondering what the other person is feeling in the beginning. I knew I liked her and that I shouldn’t. She knew she liked me but didn’t think I’d want to be with her because of the same reasons I shouldn’t be with her.”

  “Can we talk about stress for a minute?” Larissa interjected. “I’m curious how you would describe your stress at different points in the relationship from the moment you met until today, and how it might have impacted your decision-making. For example, did either of you ever consider not going for it, and why?”

  Harlow leaned back and let her take over the rest of the interview. She watched Larissa as she pushed those glasses back up her nose and smiled a little. God, she had loved her for so long now. She couldn’t believe it had been that long, but she’d once been a college freshman, and she had thought she’d loved her then. More than a decade of friendship and time had passed since, and she knew she loved Larissa even more now. Harlow had to look away then, but still needing a moment to herself with all this talk of love and her sitting so close to Larissa, she decided to excuse herself to go to the bathroom, earning a small smile from Larissa when she hit the door. She couldn’t just stand outside the room while they continued on without her, though, because all the walls were glass, so she figured she’d get everyone water like last time. She headed down the hall and to the front lobby, where she noticed Samantha at the desk.

  “How’s it going? I saw you two come in. I came out of the bathroom and hooked a right to avoid you,” Samantha said.

  “It’s going well, I think. I thought you worked days.”

  “I’m covering for someone tonight.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “How did you know?”

  “Know what?” Samantha asked.

  “That I was in love with Larissa.”

  “You really want to talk about this now?”

  “She’s busy in there, and I’m curious. You and I weren’t together that long, and we’ve sort of maintained our friendship. Or, we’re at least acquaintances, as you put it before. I wouldn’t say we were particularly close, even when we dated. How did you know?”